Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/1496639
52 m a s s a g e & b o d y wo r k m ay/ j u n e 2 0 2 3 National Association of Spa Franchises Setting competition aside for the good of the profession, several franchise organizations came together in 2019 to address two of the largest issues in their purview: safety and recruitment. Safety quickly became the dominating concern. The group was inspired by an article about ride share competitors Uber and Lyft developing a shared database called the Sharing Safety Program designed to expose abusive drivers. The database flags and shares information between organizations so that drivers who have been disciplined are not rehired by the competing group. From this idea sprang the creation of the National Association of Spa Franchises (NASF). Its first mission was to create the Employment Verification System (EVS) to prevent massage therapists who have been fired, or who resigned after being sexually inappropriate with a client, from being rehired. Member organizations can submit a search request via the EVS to determine if a potential employee was terminated or resigned because of inappropriate conduct with a client at a previous job. For a nominal annual fee, the EVS screens applicants through a third-party company called Crimcheck. There are at least 40,000 massage therapists employed by massage therapy franchise organizations in the US. In the first eight months of operation, over 10,000 EVS searches were performed by the NASF member organizations, which resulted in flagging 12 therapists who had a history of being terminated for inappropriate conduct. Five franchise organizations are currently members of the NASF: Elements Massage, Hand and Stone, Massage Heights, Spavia, and Woodhouse. The NASF hopes all massage franchise companies—as well as large and small privately owned massage clinics—join the NASF to help protect both the public and the massage therapy profession. For more information, visit nationalassociationof spafranchises.com. RON L ACH/PEXELS.COM